Today is the 7-year anniversary of Sen. Murphy’s filibuster. He held the floor for 15 hours to demand action on gun violence. It was a pivotal moment for our movement to save lives.
Chris shared a personal note about that day before our first FEC deadline in March. With today’s anniversary and another FEC deadline quickly approaching, we wanted to reshare his story and ask you to please consider making a donation to our campaign to support Chris and our fight to end gun violence.
-Team Murphy
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Sen. Chris Murphy
Date: Thu, Mar 23, 2023
Friend -
I’m writing to share a story with you. It’s a personal one that ties together my work on gun safety, my family, and the importance of perseverance and action.
When I’m done, I’m going to ask you to make a donation to my campaign before the first official FEC fundraising deadline of this race comes to a close.
If you understand the importance of this deadline and want to skip the story, you can contribute here. It’d mean a lot:
https://act.chrismurphy.com/go/Q1-FEC-Deadline
Otherwise, the story starts about halfway through my 15-hour filibuster about gun violence in America three days after the mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
I remember looking up at the gallery and seeing my wife, Cathy, sitting with my oldest son Owen, who was then 8 years old. I had been standing and speaking on the floor for about 8 straight hours, and I had no good way to keep in touch with the outside world, so I was surprised when I saw Cathy and Owen looking down on me. It was emotional, since my gun violence work is so personal, I can’t stand to live in a world where my kids - or any kids - go to school worrying whether they will make it home alive.
When I saw them, I had to take a minute to compose myself. But when I got myself together, I looked right at Owen and told him that though I was sorry I had to miss Wednesday pizza night with him and his brother and Mom, I knew that someday he would understand why I was doing what I was doing.
I told him that nothing would ever change in the world for the better unless people make the effort to create change.
In a way, my filibuster worked. I forced the Senate to take a vote on my universal background checks bill. But we lost the vote.
And we lost a number of votes after that.
But we kept fighting. We kept building our movement. And last summer, almost exactly six years since I looked up and saw Cathy and Owen in the gallery, we passed the most significant gun safety legislation in three decades.
As a senator, I can do big and impactful things like the filibuster that day (and night).
But even if you’re not a Senator, all of us have important roles to play in the fights to create meaningful change.
Today, I am asking you to do something small, but important. I’m asking you to donate to keep me in the Senate where I can continue fighting for you.
Some can give a little. Some can give a lot. The important thing is the number of donations we receive before this deadline. So I am asking:
If you've saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Thank you in advance for chipping in. I really appreciate it.
Every best wish,
Chris
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